Video: Strikeforce's Larkin lashes out at Rockhold's withdrawal

Lorenz Larkin said injuries could excuse him from Strikeforce’s final card.

The middleweight today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) he’s accumulated all the bumps and bruises that come with four months of training.

Yet Larkin wouldn’t think of bowing out like his opponent did. He said he needs to fight every five months, or he creates problems for his girlfriend and everyone else around.

“I’m not cut from that type of cloth,” Larkin (13-0 MMA, 4-0 SF) said. “It’s just a different era of fighters. They’re not built how they used to be.”

Following the injury withdrawal of Luke Rockhold (10-1 MMA, 9-0 SF) from the Jan. 12 event, Rockhold is convinced that the middleweight champ is protecting his career instead of fighting.

He’s also skeptical that lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez, who withdrew from a fight with Pat Healy citing a lingering shoulder injury, is truly incapable of stepping in the cage.

“I just feel like guys are acting like they haven’t paved any way for them to go to the UFC and a catastrophe could happen on Jan. 12, where [UFC President Dana White is] going to be like, ‘No. I didn’t like the way you fought, and you’re not going to come over,'” Larkin said.

A lingering wrist injury was cited as the reason for Rockhold’s withdrawal from “Strikeforce: Champions,” which is set for Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. Rockhold vs. Larkin was one of three title fights originally announced for the Showtime-televised main card, though Rockhold and Melendez both recently scratched from the event, which is expected to be Strikeforce’s finale one.

Rockhold withdrew from a fight with Larkin on an ill-fated Nov. 3 event after first suffering the wrist injury. The event was later canceled.

Larkin said he’s adjusted to the schedule of big-time fights, which means his work nights are spaced further apart than in his days as an up-and-coming fighter. Instead of waiting a month for his next bout, he’s waiting upward of seven months.

But he added that he’s more than earned a spot in the UFC when the beleaguered Strikeforce holds that final event. He said he fights because he loves it and needs it.

“The good thing about me is that I never had any pressure,” Larkin said. “I didn’t come from no big gym and make my debut on TV. I came from, like, ‘Who the hell is this guy? This guy’s going to get eaten up.’ Everything that’s happened so far has been a plus. There couldn’t have been [a] negative because I just popped up and stayed.”

Rockhold and Melendez, he said, have a different aim in mind. With the Zuffa-owned promotion set to fold, they’re thinking about the future.

“I just hate that I felt like it was one of those things where they were just buying time and they already knew that was going to happen,” Larkin said. “It’s just retarded. Even Gilbert. It’s just like, c’mon.

“I just think that [Rockhold] doesn’t want to just fight. There’s no doubt he’s going to the UFC. He should have never taken the fight. I would rather him never taken the fight and me fought somebody totally different.”

Larkin said he’ll gladly fight on the Jan. 12 event, though he has yet to receive word of a new opponent. He’s also waiting to hear whether he’ll be paid for the canceled Nov. 3 event, as were fighters displaced by a Sept. 29 card that was sunk by injury withdrawals.

Asked whether he’d still like to fight Rockhold, Larkin said, “I’d rather not. I’d rather take a different fight.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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